Adriaan Roland Holst (Society for Medallic Art 1977, extra medal)

Charlotte van Pallandt was essentially self-taught as a sculptor, and was largely formed abroad. In the Netherlands she had contact with Dupuis, Termote, Wenckebach, Andriessen, Carasso, and Wezelaar.

It is perhaps due to the absence of traditional training that no sculptor experimented in such diverse ways with the traditional theme of the portrait as Van Pallandt, also called "La grande dame de la sculpture néerlandaise". That title of honor is well-deserved. She worked in wood, various types of stone, and from the 1950s onwards especially in wax and clay. These latter materials gave her the opportunity to continue working when the model had already left; that was when her concentration was greatest.

Her friend, the poet A. Roland Holst, posed—or rather sat, as he constantly fell asleep—for a life-size portrait in 1963. Van Pallandt modelled four different versions, one of which was cast several times in bronze. For the Society she designed three medals, of which the least naturalistic was executed. The head of the aged prince of poets was given its open form and volume by arranging parallel strips of wax strips over small balls, structuring the main lines of the head.

The openness makes the head unique: for despite the limited mass, there is clear recognizability and a suggestive effect and power. The reverse gives the name and dates of life in typography that is not by Van Pallandt's hand—she never applied herself to that. The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, holds this object as NG-C-2017-89; its record gives material recorded as bronze (metal); technique casting; measurements diameter 9.3 cm x weight 370 g.

Description translated from the museum's Dutch catalogue text; details are those of this museum object, and how far it represents a wider type has not been independently verified.